Harry Reid isn't out of the woods yet -- and he won't be until the election is over -- but if he continues to run the kind of campaign he's run and Sharron Angle continues to run the kind of campaign she's run, there's no question but that he's going to end up the winner. LVRJ:
U.S. SENATE RACE: Reid takes lead on Angle
New poll shows Republican losing support among every voter group
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has opened a strong lead over Republican opponent Sharron Angle after pummeling her in a ubiquitous TV and radio ad campaign that portrays the Tea Party favorite as "too extreme," according to a new poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Democratic incumbent's aggressive strategy of attacking Angle's staunch conservative views from the moment she won the June 8 primary has cost her support among every voter group -- from men and women to both political parties and independents -- in vote-rich Clark and Washoe counties.
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The Mason-Dixon poll showed that if the general election were held now, Reid would win 44 percent to 37 percent for Angle. Ten percent were undecided, 5 percent would choose "none of these candidates," and the remaining 4 percent would pick another candidate on the ballot.
In another poll this week, Rasmussen showed Angle with a scant 3 point lead. Given Rasmussen's noted pro-Republican bias, Angle +3 actually meant that Reid must have had a healthy lead, and today's release of the Mason-Dixon poll confirms that.
Although the national focus has largely been on Angle's extremist views across the board, in Nevada the focus has been on Angle's tea party fueled economic views, including her pledge that if she were elected to the U.S. Senate, she would not work to create jobs in Nevada. About two weeks ago, Reid released an ad hammering Angle for saying "People ask me, what are you going to do to develop jobs in your state? Well that's not my job as a U.S. Senator."
As if she were a circus animal, Angle responded on cue, slamming Reid for having worked to save thousands of jobs at MGM's CityCenter project:
We know when they put those jobs at CityCenter, it was jobs that were taken away, business that was taken away from other areas, so it actually injured the economy of other businesses.
Angle doubled and tripled down on her bizarre zero-sum theory of economics in the following days and yesterday, Reid released a new ad firing back at her callous indifference to the plight of Nevada's unemployed:
Between Angle's general craziness, her extreme right-wing economic views, and her campaign's general incompetence, it's not hard to see that she's got virtually no path to victory, especially given the campaign team that Reid has put in place.